In the wake of the 400,000 strong Climate March in New York and the Flood Wall Street protest, the United Nations hosted a Climate Summit in New York on the 23 September 2014. The event was intended to be a catalyst for the development of a binding, fair, and ambitious international agreement upon climate change. Dr Matthew Rimmer writes about his experiences of being in New York at an historically important moment.
October 24, 2013
photo credit: Kevin Gong via Flickr cc
Today, if the United Nations General Assembly had its way, you would be on vacation. In 1971, the Assembly adopted Resolution 2782 recommending that 24th October, celebrated since 1948 as UN Day to mark the anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Charter, should be observed as a public holiday by all member states.
A cursory online survey of national public holidays however, suggests that few, if any, of us will have cause to thank the UN for the opportunity to put our feet up. That UN Day is widely ignored could be interpreted as evidence that there is little worth celebrating. […]
May 29, 2013
The 29th May 2013 is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. This day is used to honour the memory of those who have died in their role as UN peacekeepers as well as to pay tribute to those who have served, and who are currently serving, as peacekeepers across the globe. Since the first UN peacekeeping mission was established, over 3000 peacekeepers have lost their lives in service. While such deaths appear to unfortunately be a constant factor in these operations that seek to bring about peace, the means by which this peace is sought is, by contrast, and as a result of new challenges, adaptable and constantly changing.
September 14, 2012
Eleanor Roosevelt and United Nations Universal (wikipedia)
The medical profession has long recognised that, when it comes to health, prevention is better than cure. For example, it is better to help people quit smoking than to treat lung cancer and to provide vaccines rather than try and cure childhood illnesses, such as mumps, measles and chicken pox. Unfortunately, we have been less quick to recognise that when it comes to human rights, prevention is also better than cure. Paula Gerber examines our current approach to human rights.
August 10, 2012
‘WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom’, – Charter of the United Nations, 1945. In this forceful article, Matthew Parish questions whether international law really achieves the goals it wants to.
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October 14, 2014
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