un
Posts (24)
Inside the UN Security Council: Perspectives on Council Reform from Africa and the Global South
Africa’s push for UN Security Council reform highlights frustrations with historical inequities and exclusion from permanent membership. The African Union seeks greater influence to address peace, security, and representation challenges amid growing global calls for change.
Tags: AFRICA, SECURITY COUNCIL, un, united nations
Two Years to Save the World from Climate Breakdown?
Why we won’t find salvation in the World Bank and IMF.
Tags: bretton wood, BWIs, climate justice, Debt, un, united nations, world bank
Delegation to UNPFII 2024
The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office, together with our partner organization MADRE, has welcomed a delegation of Indigenous women leaders from across the world to participate at the 23rd session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Tags: climate justice, indigenous, un, united nations, unpfii
Is the Summit of the Future a “Hail Mary” for the United Nations?
The UN is holding a Summit of the Future in September. What are the origins and goals of this initiative, and what outcomes can we hope from it?
Tags: SOTF, summit of the future, un, united nations
Report on the UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights
From October 23 to 27, 2023, 76 states met for the ninth time at the United Nations Human Rights Council to negotiate an international human rights treaty to regulate companies and their supply chains (also known as the “UN Treaty”).
Tags: human rights, un, UN Treaty, united nations
Unilateral Sanctions in International Law
The legal assessment of sanctions is a complex endeavour. It combines many different areas of general international law with specific legal areas such as human rights or trade law, which apply only to certain domains. Furthermore, the question of whether or under which circumstances sanctions are lawful touches upon the foundations of international law. Unlike […]
Tags: international law, law, sanctions, un, un reform, united nations
The UN Summits Week: Grasping at Straws?
All roads led to New York in September with the convening of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. There were other high-level events held alongside the UNGA to make the most of this coming together of more than 290 of the world’s leaders, therefore forming a “UN Summits Week.” But what actually came of this week of high-level meetings?
Tags: climate ambition summit, climate justice, FFD, SDG, sdg summit, un, united nations
Gender Justice In The Global Economic System
In this new briefing of our series about the UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights in collaboration with the Global Policy Forum, Karolin Seitz highlights the potential of the draft agreement to translate the feminist foreign and development policy envisaged by the German government from theory into practice.
Tags: business and human rights, feminist foreign policy, germany, global policy forum, human rights, un, UN Treaty, united nations
Debt Justice Now
We present the fourth infographic from our series looking at key concepts and processes that influence the work of the United Nations around the Financing for Development process.
Tags: climate justice, debt justice, un
The Progressive Legacy of the UN and Its Potentials for Left Politics
This study seeks to provide impetus to a broad international discourse in aid of a future in which the world is shaped by principles of peace and justice.
Tags: un, un reform
The United Nations as a legitimized site of “global governance” under International Law
There is still enormous potential and possibility of pursuing economic issues, and a new and democratic global economic architecture within the UN, with the potentials and possibilities resting on the political will of states. Pursuing just global governance through international cooperation and solidarity is necessary.
Tags: un, un reform, united nations
LOVE in Action: Empowering Women and Girls with Disabilities to Win Equality and Freedom
The fight for equality and freedom is far from over, especially for those who face discrimination because of their gender and disabilities.
Tags: disabilities, philipines, un, united nations, women
Fighting Inequality: The untapped Potential of Human Rights
The “age of human rights”, says legal historian Samuel Moyn, has been “kindest to the rich”. It is hard to argue otherwise, with a staggering rise in economic inequality between the haves and have-nots coinciding with the expansion of human rights discourse over the past 50 years. This trend shows no sign of abating. Since 2020, […]
Tags: human rights, inequality, UDHR, UDHR75, un, united nations
Unpacking Development Aid
Financing for Development Infographic Series #3
Tags: climate finance, climate justice, development, un, united nations
How a UN Resolution Could Help Hold Countries to Account on Climate Action
The RLS International Climate Justice team talked with José Daniel, Front Convener for Latin America for the World’s Youth for Climate Justice about a key decision on climate action.
Tags: climate, climate action, climate justice, climate office, ICJ, un
Our Common Agenda: Multilateralism for Whom?
This new infographic shows how Our Common Agenda (OCA) has fallen prey to corporate actors and fails to deliver an inclusive agenda that centers people and the planet.
Tags: FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT, OCA, un
Urban Grassroots Engagement in Global Climate Debates
In cities, people living in slums, ghettos, informal settlements, townships, or camps are among the most vulnerable to climate change and more likely to experience loss of life, livelihoods, home, and territory. However, their ability to reduce vulnerabilities and adapt to a changing climate is limited compared to better-off groups. Further more, these vulnerable groups lack representation in international decision-making processes that affect them locally, including those regarding the global governance of climate change. This study provides a comprehensive overview of issues relating to the participation of marginalized urban communities in international climate policy decision-making and implementation.
Tags: ADVOCACY, climate justice, Global Governance, GRASSROOTS, un
On Standby
Report on the sixth session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on a binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (“treaty”) From October 26 to 30, 2020, the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights (OEIGWG) met for the […]
Tags: human rights council, un
On the Precipice: A Progressive Agenda in the Biden Era
On the eve of the inauguration of Joe Biden, we at Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung – New York commissioned a series of reports on key political issues. We wanted to hear how experts feel the Biden administration might address these issues and better understand how receptive the incoming administration is to a progressive agenda, and know on what issues progressives will have to continue to put pressure. You can read the complete series below.
Tags: biden, china, covid-19, education, housing, labor, military spending, mmt, nuclear, progressive, russia, un
Options for a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights
In 2014, Ecuador and South Africa initiated a resolution to create a human rights treaty to regulate the activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) and other business enterprises. Since 2015, the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises (OEIGWG) has met three times to discuss the scope and content of the prospective […]
Tags: human rights, un
The UN Foundation
Backed by the failure of Member States to adequately finance UN development activities, the UNF has acted as a consistent advocate and facilitator for the United Nations to open up to private sector engagement. However, this type of engagement has not been accompanied by a rigorous assessment of effectiveness and has worked without addressing issues of reporting and coherence with UN mandates.
Tags: un
Of Foxes and Chickens
Security Council reform is long overdue, and calls for this reform have been on the table for decades. Most commonly, these calls have taken the form of large and powerful nations seeking a permanent seat on the council.
Tags: un, un security council
“We the Peoples”?: The United Nations on Its Seventieth Anniversary
Seventy years ago, on October 24, 1945, the United Nations Charter came into force. The Charter’s framers, powerfully speaking as “We the Peoples of the United Nations,” announced their determination “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,” to advance justice and “respect for the obligations arising […]
Tags: un
Contracting Insecurity: Private Military and Security Companies and the Future of the United Nations
The UN’s use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) is not a technical issue – it is a deeply political one. Although the UN has taken some steps to improve the selection and oversight of these companies and to make its practices more transparent, these efforts have tended to focus merely on technical issues, […]
Tags: pmsc, privatization, un