A bloc of conservative countries is mounting a new push to enshrine “family values” in the UN’s Human Rights Council. What they really want is rather more sinister.
Australia’s grilling by other major nations at this week’s climate talks in Bonn show that it still has serious questions to answer over the scope of its greenhouse emissions-reduction targets.
The UN’s peacekeeping efforts are all very well, but they take too long to mount and are unevenly spread across member states. It’s time to build something less ad hoc.
Negotiations on the UN’s 15-year development strategy, which involve all 193 member states, have at last produced a set of ambitious Sustainable Development Goals. These focus on social justice, poverty…
A more enlightened approach to child labour would listen to what children say about work, balance work and school, and enhance the flexibility and quality of schooling to cater for working children.
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has hinted that Australia risks becoming an outsider at this year’s Paris climate talks if it doesn’t match the ambition of many other countries’ climate pledges.
Pope Francis is set to release an encyclical on climate change next month, which he hopes will influence this year’s Paris climate talks as well as continuing his work on behalf of the world’s poorest.
While serving in the RAAF, future prime minister Gough Whitlam led his first political campaign, agitating among his own squadron in support of the 1944 referendum.
In the final part of his essay on the Paris climate talks, Nick Rowley explains how a successful deal, whether binding or not, needs to influence directly the domestic policies of the world’s nations.
To mark the 21st anniversary of the Rwandan genocide: lessons from the “gacaca” courts, the country’s unique and ambitious community justice initiative.
Hopes are high that a global climate deal can be reached in Paris this year. In part 1 of a three-part essay on the prospects for such a deal, Nick Rowley sets out three myths about the UN talks that need to be dumped before we go forward.
Australia has a clear obligation under international law to take action to stop abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law by the ISF and Shi’a militia.
The UN has been mulling how to keep our biggest corporations in check for about 40 years. The fear is that the latest move by countries down the supply chain will fail to make any headway.