No Joke: U.N. Elects Saudi Arabia to Women’s Rights Commission, For 2018-2022 Term

The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch condemned the U.N.’s election of Saudi Arabia, “the world’s most misogynistic regime,” to a 2018-2022 term on its Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. agency “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd.”

“Every Saudi woman,” said Neuer, “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.” .... https://www.unwatch.org

UN human rights watchdog orders Saudi Arabia to stop stoning children

The United Nations has called on Saudi Arabia to repeal laws that allow stoning, amputation, flogging and execution of children.

Children over 15 years are tried as adults and can be executed, "after trials falling short of guarantees of due process and a fair trial", according to the report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The committee's 18 independent experts analysed the kingdom's compliance record with a UN treaty protecting the rights of citizens under the age of 18.

According to the UN committee, out of 47 people executed on 2 January for security offences, four were under 18 .... http://www.independent.co.uk

US House Votes To Disavow UN Resolution Against Israel

The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan measure to disapprove a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Israeli settlements on the occupied Palestinian territories.

The motion, passed 342 to 80 on Thursday, described last month’s resolution as “an obstacle to Israel-Palestinian peace,” and was a rebuke to President Barack Obama’s approach to the US-Israel relationship.

It noted that the Obama administration’s decision to abstain – and not veto – the Security Council resolution “undermined” Washington’s decades-long policy of shielding Israel at the UN .... http://rinf.com

Netanyahu told New Zealand its actions at UN Security Council were a 'declaration of war'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Foreign Minister Murray McCully of a "declaration of war" if the UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel's continued settlements, according to a report.

New Zealand co-sponsored the resolution, which said the settlements violate international law and undermine a two-state solution in Israel's conflict with Palestine.

On Saturday, the Security Council voted in favour of passing the resolution and the Israeli Government recalled its ambassador from New Zealand as a result.

Before the vote, Netanyahu personally phoned McCully and warned him of war, unnamed Western diplomats told Isareli newspaper Haaretz .... http://www.nzherald.co.nz

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls UN settlement vote "biased and shameful"

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel scrambled Saturday to contain the fallout from a UN vote demanding it halt settlements in Palestinian territory, lashing out at US President Barack Obama over the "shameful" resolution.

The Security Council passed the measure Friday after the United States abstained, enabling the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy.

By deciding not to veto the move, the US took a rare step that deeply angered Israel, which accused Obama of abandoning its closest Middle East ally in the waning days of his administratio .... https://www.yahoo.com

Fraud on the UN: Venezuela’s Corruption of its 2016 UPR Human Rights Review

The UN’s examination today of Venezuela’s human rights record, in a periodic review conducted every five years by fellow UN members states at the Human Rights Council, is severely compromised by the Maduro regime’s manipulation of the non-governmental contribution to the record, which is supposed to consist of “credible and reliable information.”

The UN Secretary-General and High Commissioner for Human Rights must investigate how their officials failed to screen out submissions that clearly do not meet this standard.

While the other ten countries being reviewed this month have 10 to 50 submissions per country, Venezuela has more than 500 .... http://www.unwatch.org

Russia loses election to UN rights council

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia on Friday failed to win re-election at the UN Human Rights Council during a vote that capped a campaign by rights groups to reject Moscow over its role in the war in Syria.

The UN General Assembly elected Hungary and Croatia instead to represent eastern Europe at the rights council, in a major upset for Moscow which has been a member for all but one year since the council was set up in 2006.

The 193 member-states voted to fill 14 seats at the 47-nation council, which is tasked with monitoring and investigating rights violations worldwide .... https://www.yahoo.com

U.N news agency scrubs tweet calling on Americans abroad to 'end Trump'

The United Nations News Centre — the official U.N. news service — tweeted, then quickly pulled, a post that called for "8 million Americans abroad" to "stop Trump."

The tweet, published at 9:14 p.m. ET on Thursday, urged American expats to share a voter registration tool on the website of the activist organization Avaaz that states, "U.S. Citizens abroad could defeat Trump ... if they voted."

The Web page, titled "The October surprise that will end Trump," allows users to sign up for help registering to vote in the Nov. 8 presidential election and encourages them enlist their friends as well .... http://www.politico.com

Ban Ki-moon in Final General Assembly Speech: The World Is a Terrible Place

In his final address to the U.N. General Assembly, the normally taciturn U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he felt “deep concern” as he prepares to leave office before launching into a litany of world leaders’ recent failures:

Gulfs of mistrust divide citizens from their leaders. Extremists push people into camps of “us” and “them.” The Earth assails us with rising seas, record heat and extreme storms. And danger defines the days of many.

Ban stated that recent achievements in economic development and public health are vulnerable to “grave security threats” .... http://www.slate.com

U.N. Official 'Accidentally' Crushes Own Throat Right Before Testifying Against Hillary Clinton

Call it conspiracy theory, coincidence or just bad luck, but any time someone is in a position to bring down Hillary Clinton by testifying they wind up dead. In fact, there’s a long history of Clinton-related body counts, with scores of people dying under mysterious circumstances.

Perhaps the most notable is Vince Foster. Foster was a partner at Clinton’s law firm and knew the inner workings of the Clinton Machine. Police ruled that death a suicide, though it is often noted that Fostermay have been suicided.

Now, another official has found himself on the wrong end of the Clintons. That John Ashe was a former President of the United Nations General Assembly highlights the fact that no one is safe once in their sights .... http://www.zerohedge.com

Communist Tied To Genocide My Be Next UN Boss

The next United Nations chief may be an unapologetic communist who served a savage dictatorship that murdered hundreds of thousands of people and tortured even more. Her name is Irina Bokova (shown). And thanks to a slick public-relations operation and a team of “former” communist spies running her campaign, there is reportedly a good chance that the Bulgarian Communist Party operative could end up as UN boss in 2017 when current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s term expires.

Bokova currently serves as the chief of the UN “Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization” (UNESCO). But her long career in the service of both internationalism and communism suggests that she has been plotting to move up the UN hierarchy for years. Bokova’s candidacy has backing from top establishment figures in the West, in addition to strong support from key leaders of the East such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Establishment media outlets around the world have also been singing her praises while concealing her past. Indeed, Bokova and those backing her should not be underestimated .... http://www.thenewamerican.com

U.N. Warns Trump May Be 7 Months Away From Acquiring Nuclear Weapons

NEW YORK—According to an alarming new global risk report published Tuesday by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump may be just seven months away from acquiring nuclear weapons. “A year ago, the threat didn’t seem great enough to warrant serious concern, but at this moment, a nuclear-capable Trump is now a very real and very imminent possibility,” said UNODA high representative Kim Won-soo, adding that the agency’s current projections showed Trump potentially procuring nuclear weapons, as well as advanced ballistic missile technology, as early as January of next year .... http://www.theonion.com

‘Fake Jewish graves in Muslim cemeteries’: UNESCO slams Israeli occupation of Palestinian sites

The Israeli authorities are furious after a UNESCO resolution stated that the Temple Mount and holy sites in Hebron and Bethlehem are an “integral part of Palestine.” The organization also criticized Israel, “the occupying power,” for planting fake graves in Muslim cemeteries.

Two tourist destinations, the Cave of the Patriarchs in the heart of the old city of Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, are named in the paper as “Palestinian sites.” The draft decision by the UNESCO executive board on occupied Palestine was released April 11.

UNESCO “reaffirms that the two concerned sites located in… Hebron and in Bethlehem are an integral part of Palestine” and “disapproves the ongoing Israeli illegal excavations, works, construction of private roads for settlers and a separation wall inside the Old City of… Hebron, that harmfully affect the integrity of the site,” the statement says .... https://www.rt.com

UN chief urges North Korea to scrap rocket launch

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged North Korea to drop plans for a rocket launch that would be in violation of a UN ban on missile technology.

"The secretary-general believes that it is important for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to refrain from using ballistic missile technology and to work for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said .... http://news.yahoo.com

WHO declares Zika virus global health emergency

The World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency on Monday, following a recommendation by a committee of independent experts.

“I am now declaring that the recent cluster of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities reported in Latin America following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014 constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said on Monday .... https://www.rt.com

Syrian opposition to join Geneva talks: delegate

Riyadh (AFP) - Syria's largest mainstream opposition group said Friday it would attend UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva, a senior delegate told AFP after four days of discussions in Riyadh.

The delegate said the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee will send "about 30, 35 people" in all to the UN-brokered Geneva talks, which got underway Friday.

The HNC however said it would not be taking part in peace negotiations in the Swiss city.

"HNC confirms it is coming to #Genevaiii to participate in discussions with the @UN, not for negotiations," the group said in a tweet .... http://news.yahoo.com

Saudi Arabia Conducted 119 Airstrikes Against Civilian Targets In Yemen, UN Panel Finds

“Many attacks involved multiple airstrikes on multiple civilian objects. Of the 119 sorties, the panel identified 146 targeted objects. The panel also documented three alleged cases of civilians fleeing residential bombings and being chased and shot at by helicopters.”

The coalition’s targeting of civilians through airstrikes, either by bombing residential neighbourhoods or by treating the entire cities of Sa’dah and Maran as military targets, is a grave violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. In certain cases, the panel found such violations to have been conducted in a widespread and systematic manner.” .... http://www.zerohedge.com

Peace talks between Damascus & opposition to start January 29 - UN Syria envoy

Talks between Damascus and the Syrian opposition will begin on January 29, the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has told journalists in Geneva. The negotiations will focus on a broad ceasefire, stopping Islamic State militants and increasing aid, he added.

Mistura said the process of finalizing the list of participants “is still ongoing,” particularly regarding clarification of the opposition groups which will not be considered “terrorist.”

He added that the UN will start sending invitations on Tuesday. “I’m going to send the invitations given by the mandate of the UN Security Council,” he said .... https://www.rt.com

Venezuela and Bahrain among 15 countries stripped of voting rights at UN due to debts

The United Nations has deprived a number of countries of voting rights following their failure to pay the membership charge. The list of non-payer states includes Venezuela, which is set to take over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in February.

The General Assembly has been informed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that due to an inability to pay the required sum, the countries on the list will be able to take part in voting only on extraordinary occasions, AP reported.

The countries affected by the decision, apart from Venezuela, include the Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Burundi, Bahrain, Libya, Mali, the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu .... https://www.rt.com