Tag Archives: Topic: United Nations

The State Department has submitted a report to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with something called the Universal Periodic Review . . . The very first line of the report states: ‘The story of the United States of America is one guided by universal values shared the world over–that all are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights.’ Perhaps I’m being too picky or hypersensitive, but I couldn’t help but ask upon reading that sentence, ‘Would it have killed you to say that all are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights?’”

Catholic News Agency: “A young pro-life leader from the International Youth Alliance has denounced the World Youth Conference in Leon, Mexico as a ‘farce.’ He explained that the United Nations-promoted event is working to impose an agenda on delegates that is contrary to life and the family.”

Wall Street Journal editorial: “In a 29-page report submitted last Friday to the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Administration offered a summary of the status of human rights in the U.S. . . . For many years, the cause of human rights has been systematically corrupted by people who cannot distinguish between the rights themselves and their own political hobbyhorses. What this report mainly accomplishes is to make the U.S government an accomplice to that corruption.” The report is available here.

“High unemployment rates, hate crime, poverty, poor housing, lack of access to health care and discriminatory hiring practices are among the challenges the report identified as affecting blacks, Latinos, Muslims, South Asians, Native Americans and gays and lesbians in the United States.”

ACLU: “The U.S. government today submitted its first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report to the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC). As part of the UPR process, nations report to the HRC on their efforts to strengthen human rights commitments and comply with international human rights standards.”

LifeNews: “The summit ended with Member States extending the controversial, non-binding Maputo Plan of Action (PoA) for an additional five years and expanding new initiative called the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction on Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA). Pressure was placed on the AU from UN agencies and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGO).”

National Secular Society (UK): “ADF lawyer [Roger Kiska], who is located in Croatia, said . . . ‘It means that we become players with all of the draft committees on conventions and treaties, from things like the international criminal court statutes to things potentially like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, where we as legal experts can come in and provide input on the things that we feel are important.’” | ADF News Release

Denver Post: “Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are ‘converting Denver into a United Nations community.’”

OneNewsNow: “‘[It] means that we become players with all of the draft committees on conventions and treaties, from things like the international criminal court statutes to things potentially like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, where we as legal experts can come in and provide input on the things that we feel are important,’ [ADF Attorney Roger Kiska] explains.”

LifeSiteNews: “The British government has pledged to place an ‘unprecedented focus’ on ‘family planning,’ including abortion, in its efforts to forward the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The government particularly focused on abortion in a July 27 press release, saying that ‘safe’ abortion is the solution to the estimated 70,000 deaths a year ‘from an estimated 20 million unsafe abortions.’”

OneNewsNow: “It took the help of the United States, but the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has gained official status at the U.N., which is an ‘important step forward for human rights,’ according to President Obama.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘No person – anywhere – should be punished simply for holding to Christian beliefs. Receiving special consultative status at the U.N. is a major advancement for ADF and our global legal efforts to protect and preserve religious freedom,’ said ADF Director of Global Activities and Strategic Alliances [Benjamin Bull].”

C-FAM: “A United Nations (UN) treaty committee notorious for its promotion of abortion and ideological positions not supported by UN treaties, concludes its session this week after launching attacks on motherhood and traditional gender roles, while calling for an ever-expanded array of new sexual and reproductive ‘rights.’ The session was especially notable for the statement by the Russian Federation, which reported that decreasing abortion rates were helping to decrease the overall maternal mortality rates in that country.”

Special consultative status will allow ADF to monitor, shape issues affecting religious freedom

Yahoo (AFP): “Laws criminalizing gay sex in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region is pushing infection rates of HIV and AIDS to ‘alarming’ levels, the United Nations Development Programme said Wednesday. … ‘These laws often taken on the force of vigilantism, frequently leading to abuse and human rights violations. Correspondingly, HIV prevalence has reached alarming levels among men who have sex with men and transgender populations in many countries of the region,’ the statement said.”

“In June, when an Egyptian delegate in the NGO Committee asked whether one of IGLHRC’s positions on ‘gay rights’ could threaten the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression, the U.S. delegate forestalled examination of the group by calling for an immediate vote to accredit it.”

Reuters: “The United Nations on Monday accredited a major gay and lesbian organization that Egypt, Russia and others had tried to keep out as a group permitted to lobby at the world body. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, a U.S.-based advocacy group, had applied for ‘consultative status’ at the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) three years ago.”

Washington Post: “A group of nations — including the United States, China and Russia — have for the first time signaled a willingness to engage in reducing the threat of attacks on each others’ computer networks. Although the agreement, reached this week at the United Nations, is only recommendations, Robert K. Knake, a cyberwarfare expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, said it represents a ‘significant change in U.S posture’ and is part of the Obama administration’s strategy of diplomatic engagement.”

Associated Press: “The Obama administration and 14 members of the U.S. Congress are urging the U.N. Economic and Social Council to accredit the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission so it can work at the United Nations. The U.S.-based organization, which has offices in South Africa, Argentina and the Philippines, has been trying since 2007 to get consultative status with the council, which serves as the main U.N. forum for discussing international economic and social issues.”

OneNewsNow: “The United Nations has created a super agency for feminists, but one female leader thinks it’s unnecessary. The U.N. General Assembly recently voted to consolidate four different groups into a single one that could eventually be fueled by a $1 billion a year, and many of those dollars would come from the U.S. ‘Women need respect and opportunity, not a global agency that will just demand money and power for its elitist leaders,’ contends Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America (CWA). ‘There are serious needs of women around the world, but we’ve learned that these types of U.N. agencies don’t meet those needs.’”

UPI: “But the plan would allow European Council President Herman Van Rompuy the privilege of addressing the General Assembly like heads of state. The EU would also be able to submit resolutions and amendments, to reply and to make points of order.”

“The U.S. will subsidize a new $500-million United Nations agency that conservatives say will likely promote an abortion agenda.”

LifeSiteNews: The embassies of the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands have joined the United Nations to issue a declaration in favor of “gay rights” in Peru. ‘On the occasion of the celebrations of this year of Gay Pride in Peru, we express our support and solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in Peru,’ the signatories declare. ‘Transgender’ is a reference to those who claim that their “true” sex is different from their physical sex . . . ”

WSJ: “China is blocking a United Nations Security Council move to condemn North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship, say diplomats familiar with the negotiations, marking a rankling divide on the issue between the Washington and Beijing.”

C-FAM: “At the United Nations (UN) last month, several U.S. representatives attacked Egypt for asking for further investigation into a homosexual advocacy organization which has applied for special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. These attacks culminated in a sharp rebuke delivered last week by U.S. ambassador Susan Rice. The actions seem to contravene President Obama’s strategy of engaging Egypt and other Muslim societies in key foreign policy aims such as Middle East peace.”

Catholic News Agency: “Seven foreign embassies in Peru have expressed support for protests organized by homosexual activists groups demanding the legalization of same-sex unions by claiming they are being discriminated against. The statement of support was signed by the Embassies of Australia, Belgium, the United States, Holland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS.”

Reuters: “The new body will be known officially as the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, although officials say it will be referred to as U.N. Women (www.unwomen.org). It will consolidate four separate U.N. divisions now dealing with women’s and gender issues.”

C-FAM: “Elections to fill openings for half of the 23 seats of the committee charged with monitoring compliance to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) were held at United Nations (UN) headquarters this week. … The CEDAW committee’s next session will take place in New York later this month and already the committee has sent written question on abortion to more than half of the countries scheduled to be reviewed.”

Reuters: “A new United Nations report released on Tuesday calls for abandoning the U.S. dollar as the main global reserve currency, saying it has been unable to safeguard value.” | World Economic and Social Survey 2010

C-FAM: “The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched a new campaign this week called ‘A Promise is A Promise,’ demanding that states implement policies and programs to achieve the controversial Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target 5b on ‘universal access to reproductive health by 2015.’”

Reuters: “Delegates from Islamic countries, including Pakistan and Egypt, told the United Nations Human Rights Council that treatment of Muslims in Western countries amounted to racism and discrimination and must be fought. . . . Diplomats say the resolution, which also tells the investigator to make recommendations to the Human Rights Council on how its strictures might be implemented, is bound to pass given the majority the OIC and its allies have in the body.”

Boston Globe (AP): “Western nations rebuked Iran for its human rights record Tuesday after overcoming an attempt by Iran and its Muslim allies to block the statement from being read aloud in the U.N. Human Rights Council.”

LifeSiteNews: “The 2010 Women Deliver conference in the U.S. capital this week offered a rare glimpse into the heart of the pro-abortion, pro-contraception, and population-control movement in its many facets. The conference drew international UN and political leaders to a 3-day marathon on several topics tied together by one ambitious theme: using Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the reduction of maternal mortality, to promote contraception and the dismantling of pro-life laws around the world.”

C-Fam on LifeSiteNews: “Deep divisions with top United Nations (UN) officials and abortion activists on one side and maternal health researchers on the other became public this week during the Women Deliver 2 conference in Washington, DC. The dispute threatens to derail hopes of raising $30B for family planning at international development conferences in the coming months.”

Center for Reproductive Rights: “On June 4, 2010, during the 14th session of the Human Rights Council, the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Anand Grover, presented reports on Poland and India. The report called on both countries to improve the situation for sexual and reproductive health and rights. The Center proactively participated in the preparation of these two reports and intervened orally before the Human Rights Council in support of his recommendations . . . ”

Reuters: “A United Nations committee that decides which nongovernmental organizations can be accredited to the world body moved on Thursday to keep out the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.”

Spero News: “Members of the Indonesian Christian Church (aka Yasmin Church, Gereja Kristen Indonesia in Indonesian) are preparing to appeal to the United Nations against a decision by the authorities in the West Java City of Bogor to close down their church. Municipal authorities have been trying to prevent Christians from expressing their faith publicly in response to Muslim extremists. Christians have argued instead that they have a right to profess their faith wherever they live, even if it means praying in the streets.”

Reuters: “A United Nations committee that decides which nongovernmental organizations can be accredited to the world body moved on Thursday to keep out the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.”

C-FAM: “The abortion giant, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), has just released its latest financial statement. The report boasts of increased spending on youth programs and a significant increase in funding from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with an overall 20% boost in income as compared to 2008.”

Nidhi Nigam and Neha Vaidya, Sex Trafficking as a Human Rights Issue (May 20, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1612383

“Multilateral treaties and customary international law condemn slavery. Since its inception, the United Nations has always been committed to the abolition or elimination of slavery.But despite a multitude of U.N. recommendations, decisions, and other pronouncements, slavery is not dead, and the traffic and sale of human beings for sexual exploitation are flourishing. Trafficking should be dealt with not as an immigration problem requiring exclusionary laws and practices, but as a human rights issue. Conceptual clarity with regard to trafficking is the only way we can prevent the enactment of laws and programmes to prevent trafficking that violate other human rights of women.”

AFP: “UN chief Ban Ki-moon persuaded Malawi’s president to pardon a gay couple jailed for holding a wedding, but his call to reform anti-gay laws poses a challenge to most of Africa.”

Voice of America News: “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Tuesday referred repeatedly to the language in a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the acts which resulted in the loss of life . . . ”

Indian Express: “Demanding a permanent ban on Facebook, over two dozen Pakistani religious groups working under the umbrella of the JuD have decided to contact the UN for enacting a global law ‘against blasphemy of prophets and awarding death penalty to violators.’”

WorldNetDaily: “The fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution possibly have been shoved one step closer to irrelevance by the U.S. Supreme Court, which yesterday cited as support for its opinion an international treaty that has not been adopted in the U.S. . . . Roger Kiska, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund who is based in Europe, said the Supreme Court’s use of an unadopted precedent ‘completely overlooks the checks and balances system that is established by the U.S. Constitution.’”

Fr. Raymond J. DeSouza writes at the National Post: “Motherhood issues are not what they used to be. When Stephen Harper selected maternal and infant health as Canada’s signature issue for next month’s G8 and G20 meetings, he likely thought it about as controversial as maple syrup. After all, who could be against providing basic hygiene and health care to pregnant women and their offspring? For lack of basic medicines and primary health care, women in many poor countries suffer needlessly, as do their infant children. Maternal deaths in childbirth and reductions in infant mortality are among the easiest developmental issues to tackle; a relatively small investment yields significant reductions in lives lost. So how did such an apparent motherhood issue become mixed up in abortion politics?”

Reuters: “HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual men has hit alarming levels in Asia and most of them do not have access to services and care due to punitive laws which drive them underground, a U.N.-backed report said on Monday . . . ”

One News Now: “Pro-abortion groups are pushing to establish a right to abortion in every treaty that has emerged from the United Nations.”

ABC: “Libya and Thailand are among 14 countries elected as new members of the UN Human Rights Council in a vote that rights advocates have criticised as stripping the meaning from the body. Angola, Mauritania, Uganda, Maldives, Malaysia, Qatar, Moldova, Poland, Ecuador, Guatemala, Spain and Switzerland have also been elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms on the 47-nation council, which is based in Geneva.”

Natural and Un-Natural Law
Jakob Cornides, J.D., Legal Studies Series, Number Two (2010)

“The monograph that follows . . . sets forth that clash between the ideals of 1948 and the counter-principles asserted by the generation of 1968. He exposes the shoddy thinking of those who seek to establish a right to abortion — the ultimate exercise of raw, bloody power over the helpless and powerless. He brings to light the incipient totalitarianism and anti-democratic elitism of those roughly thirty United Nations and activist human rights ‘experts’ who crafted a manifesto entitled the ‘Yogyakarta Principles.’ The document purports to propound ‘binding’ human rights norms that are to govern social legislation in the area of ‘sexual orientation and gender identity,’ despite such norms never having been consented to by sovereign states.”

FoxNews: “The World Health Organization is moving full speed ahead with a controversial plan to impose billions of dollars in global consumer taxes on such things as Internet activity and everyday financial transactions like paying bills online — while its spending soars and its own financial house is in disarray . . . What it all means is that a major lobbying effort could soon be underway to convince rich governments in particular to begin taxing citizens or industries . . . ”

Christian Newswire: “The Institute on Religion and Democracy has joined with international human rights and women’s rights leaders in a nationwide campaign to urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to denounce the recent election of Iran to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women . . . ”

LifeNews: “This week, abortion advocates the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and Amnesty International (AI) are teaming up with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to host the ‘first-ever’ briefings on ‘reproductive rights’ for the committees responsible for monitoring compliance with the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) . . . ”

AP: “U.S. officials say the Obama administration is expected to release a more precise accounting of the Pentagon’s nuclear arsenal Monday.”

Jerusalem Post: “In an attempt to launch indirect proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the US has given private assurances that it would consider not using its veto power against UN Security Council condemnations of any significant new settlement activity, the Guardian reported.”

LifeSiteNews: “One of the access points that the document directs displacement site managers to is ‘the PROMESS warehouse in Port au Prince.’ LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) had reported shortly after the earthquake that, according to an inside source in Haiti, an enormous supply of condoms was taking up as much as 70% of the floor space in that warehouse and was preventing medical supplies from being unloaded, sorted, and distributed . . . ”

National Catholic Register: “The Holy See has welcomed the dwindling support for a recent U.N. resolution on religious freedom which opponents warn could be used to oppress religious minorities in some Muslim-majority states . . . Archbishop Tomasi warned that the implications of the resolution would give ‘a kind of justification’ to governments to discriminate against religious minorities. As an example, he said that if a Christian in Pakistan says Jesus is the Son of God, the government can intervene and arrest him because he has offended the Quran and Islam.”

LifeNews: “A new study out this week by the leading British medical journal shows maternal mortality rates have been significantly overestimated by United Nations (UN) agencies. The Lancet reports that maternal deaths worldwide in 2008 totaled 342,900 rather than the 500,000+ used by the World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in recent years . . . ”

EducationNews.org: “Homeschoolers have won a round in the long fight against the crackdown on family rights contained to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, but experts say they need to keep up their guard.”

LifeSite News carries this C-Fam report by Susan Yoshihara: “In London last Friday, a high ranking United Nations (UN) jurist called on the British government to detain Pope Benedict XVI during his upcoming visit to Britain, and send him to trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for ‘crimes against humanity.’ . . . Robertson, a tort lawyer, argued that prosecution at a higher level of the Church is necessary to get more money for victims of clergy sexual abuse in cases where dioceses have gone into bankruptcy.”

Becket Fund: “Today, the UN Human Rights Council agreed to extend the mandate of the Ad Hoc Committee, a UN body that is working on a binding treaty on the ‘defamation of religions’ by adopting the motion without a vote. However, support for the flawed concept is dwindling as attempts to fast-track the drafting of a formal treaty were defeated.”

BBC News: “The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, sources suggest to the BBC.”

LifeSiteNews: “Earlier this month, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a New York-based public interest law firm that seeks to expand abortion access globally, released a report titled, ['In Harm’s Way: The Impact of Kenya’s Restrictive Abortion Law.'] The report and a related video (which was highlighted on CNN this week) were first made public at a CRR side event at the Beijing +15 UN Commission on the Status of Women.”

CNS News: “The Islamic-led drive against the ‘defamation’ of religion achieved its lowest-ever level of support in a United Nations vote Thursday, despite attempts to breathe new life into the flagging campaign by linking it to the recent Swiss vote banning the construction of minarets.”

C-FAM: “At the recently concluded session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Nicaragua came up against intense and concerted international pressure from fellow United Nations (UN) member states over the abortion ban the Latin American country’s National Assembly adopted unanimously into law four years ago.”

Catholic News Agency: “The leader of the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations in Geneva has advocated a form of religious freedom that does not require ‘complete secularization’ but sees religion as a ‘bridge’ to human rights. He also criticized laws against ‘defamation’ as vague and open to abuse targeting religious minorities.”

Associated Press: “A U.N. meeting to assess progress in advancing the fight for women’s equality that ended Friday had a dramatically different slant than a similar session held five years ago: This time, the United States was not trying to make an anti-abortion declaration a crucial theme.”

LifeSiteNews: “An international coalition of pro-life organizations reminded the United Nations yesterday that it cannot dictate abortion policy to sovereign member states, specifically highlighting Mexico in its defense of the right to life.”

C-FAM: The World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides hosted a no-adults-welcome panel at the United Nations this week where Planned Parenthood was allowed to distribute a brochure entitled “Healthy, Happy and Hot.” The event was part of the annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which concludes this week.

UPI: “The Christian community in Iraq is at great risk as violence forces many members of the minority religious group to flee, the United Nations said. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said thousands of Christians were displaced from Mosul in northern Iraq because of lingering violence.”

Associated Press: “Germany’s foreign minister says countries should vote against Iran when it seeks a seat later this year on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.”

Tom Stockton writing to the Helena Independent Record: “We live in a state and nation of laws and apparently the ACLU has decided the laws of Montana and the United States are inferior and that UN has more authority, that is wrong.”

ABC: “By criminalizing all abortion procedures, including therapeutic abortions that aim to protect the life and health of the mother, Nicaragua’s ban restricts a woman’s access to a range of medical treatments, such as cardiac surgery, radiation and pain-killing medications . . . Eleven member states of the United Nations and four expert U.N. committees, including those on Torture, Human Rights and Discrimination Against Women, have urged Nicaragua to amend its laws on abortion because of such violations and the documented rise in maternal deaths since the law took effect.”

BBC: “A top UN official has condemned as ‘inadmissible’ Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s call for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland.”

Reuters: “Israel said on Thursday its plan to rehabilitate Jewish shrines in the occupied West Bank, which has drawn Palestinian and Western criticism, will not affect Muslim worshippers or change the status quo.”

Ashley Samelson, who works in International Programs for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, writing at First Things, On The Square: “Recently, both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been caught using the phrase ‘freedom of worship’ in prominent speeches, rather than the ‘freedom of religion’ the President called for in Cairo . . . Given that a fundamental element of any religion are truth claims that by nature may conflict with or offend those of another faith, the efforts of international institutions to restrict expression of these claims go right for the religious jugular. And in reducing freedom of religion to ‘freedom of worship’ in its political and diplomatic pronouncements, the United States can no longer invoke the First Amendment and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus weakening its ability to combat the international movement to criminalize religious speech.”