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 has faced tough questions over whether it is doing its part to cut greenhouse emissions.
CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
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.
UN peacekeepers are often too late to the scene to help.
EPA/Atef Safadi
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.
President Park Geun-hye stresses the importance of education for all.
Jeon Han
The UN’s ambitious education program must be extended to the most marginalised and disadvantaged.
The MDG for eradicating poverty and hunger has been helped through new high-yielding varieties of rice (right) that can withstand drought in Africa.
Reuters/Erik de Castro
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…
Children’s labour entails both benefits and harm that should be assessed at the local level.
Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly
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 chief climate negotiator Christiana Figueres told a Melbourne conference Australia risks becoming an outsider at this year’s crucial Paris talks.
EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN/AAP
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.
The Green’s need to be more radical with their plans for sport.
Peter Byrne/PA
The potential of sport is overlooked in the Green’s manifesto.
Pope Francis and UN head Ban Ki-Moon, who met at the Vatican to discuss climate change, hope to influence this year’s crucial Paris climate talks.
EPA/L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AAP
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.
French soldiers patrolling the streets of Paoua, Central African Republic.
EMA/EPA
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.
Safeguarding rainforests is an area where the United Nations has made great strides - hopefully the Paris summit can deliver more of the same.
Sze Ning/Flickr.com/Wikimedia Commons
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.
Suspects await their turn in front of a gacaca court
Reuters photographer
To mark the 21st anniversary of the Rwandan genocide: lessons from the “gacaca” courts, the country’s unique and ambitious community justice initiative.
Hopes for a singular breakthrough at the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks were dashed, but that doesn’t mean the negotiating process isn’t making quiet progress.
EPA/Henning Bagger/AAP
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.
Does anyone seriously expect Beijing or Moscow to change their behaviour because of a hail of hopeful retweets?
Given Australia’s involvement in Iraq, Tony Abbott cannot dismiss human rights abuses by Iraqi security forces fighting Islamic State militants.
AAP/PMO
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.