Tag: un

UN adds 61 firms to settlements blacklist over alleged human rights violations against Palestinians

The UN human rights office has added 61 more companies to a blacklist of firms that it says are involved in violating Palestinian human rights through business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The vast majority of the total 214 companies, which are based in 11 countries, are Israeli. Five of the 158 companies listed last year were removed in the latest update.

The blacklist, first published in 2020, was born of a vote by the UN’s human rights council, which has no ability to force companies to act. Its main goal is to name and shame businesses with ties to the settlements.

It is unclear how the inclusion on the list has affected the companies financially.

“This report is another reminder to companies that they have human rights responsibilities and are expected to conduct due diligence to ensure that they do not become involved in human rights violations or abuses,” said Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, in a statement.

Israel said it “categorically rejects” the publication. “This database is meant to serve as a blacklist against businesses that have committed no wrongdoing,” the Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva said in a statement. “We call on friends not to yield to this ugly attempt to blacklist Israeli firms.”

The UN office said it had advised the companies of their listing and given them a right of reply.

The latest report comes as Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas have faced new scrutiny.

Earlier this month, Britain banned trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where it says “settler terrorists” are carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. France and Canada announced they would take similar action.

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 Actresses Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder Handcuffed While Protesting Netanyahu’s UN Speech

Actresses Hannah Einbinder and Susan Sarandon were taken into custody Thursday outside the United Nations in New York during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the General Assembly.

Jewish Voice for Peace organized the protest, which took place a few blocks from the UN headquarters on Thursday.

Protesters wore matching shirts that read “Fund people not bombs” and carried banners including “Stop Arming Israel” and “End the Genocide.”

Chants captured on video included “Netanyahu, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide,” “Let Gaza live,” and “Stop arming Israel.”

An NYPD spokesperson said Community Affairs officers warned the crowd to leave.

“They continued to block the intersection. Multiple individuals who didn’t comply were taken into custody,” the spokesperson said, without giving a final headcount.

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Despite UN Diplomacy, the US and Iran Are Still Headed Toward More War

Just a few thoughts on the three-hour indirect meeting yesterday at the UN between US and Iranian officials, facilitated by the indefatigable Qataris.

It is undoubtedly a good thing that the two sides have resumed contact again, even though we are now back to Qatari mediators shuttling messages between them rather than the two sides talking directly to each other.

But it is also true that the two sides remain very far from each other. The positive manner in which Trump, in particular, described the meeting, as a result, leaves the impression that this was more performative than substantive. That is, yet another effort to calm the markets and reduce further negative impact on the upcoming elections. Why else would Trump insist that a deal will be reached after the midterms? That specificity gives the game away.

Indeed, part of the calculation on the American side is to make moves now to reduce the likelihood of an Iranian escalation before the midterms. As I have written before, Round 3 of the war is very likely, and from the US standpoint, the preferred timing is after the midterms. But the Iranians are no longer in a reactive mode; if war is coming, they may take preemptive action to deprive Trump of the luxury of choosing the timing of the next round. The most optimal moment to preempt a US attack would be a week or two before the midterms, which is why some limited diplomacy now with the partial aim of reducing the likelihood of such a preemption is deemed useful. And why its achievement is overstated.

To go beyond this, real concessions from both sides are needed. But right now, the key blockage is Trump’s refusal to lift the naval blockade on Iran, even if Tehran agrees to open the Strait of Hormuz. The US side fears that lifting the blockade would enable Iran to refill its coffers and provide it with much more time. Tehran would use this reprieve not to strike a deal with Washington, but to prolong the conflict for teh purpose of destroying Trump’s presidency.

Tehran, in turn, is unlikely to give any concessions of significance unless Trump lifts the blockade. Trump’s refusal to do so is interpreted by the Iranians as a reflection of his desire to overthrow the Islamic Republic or force it to surrender.

To break such a deadlock, small steps like the meeting in New York may prove useful, if not necessary. But thus far, while the resumption of (indirect) talks is a breakthrough of sorts, it is not course correction: The US and Iran are unfortunately still headed toward another round of war.

I am also linking to my conversation with Glenn Diesen from earlier this week. It quickly went to very dark places. But the situation in the Middle East/US/Iran is unravelling, and measures and scenarios that were unthinkable just a few months ago are increasingly being discussed at the government level. So we had to have an honest conversation about these previously unthinkable scenarios.

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UN moves forward with plans to take control of AI globally

Nobody panic. The UN and its vast globalist elite bureaucracy is ready to claim central oversight, control, and administration of future artificial intelligence (“AI”) development to ease worries about the fast-developing science.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the declaration Wednesday, warning world leaders AI poses ‌risks – known and unknown – that cannot be ignored.

The former Portuguese Socialist Prime Minister spoke after pushback from President Donald Trump, who called threats that AI might destroy humanity “a HOAX” and claimed efforts to limit the technology are part of a “SICK conspiracy.”

He and Mark Zuckerberg both argue market pressure, not government mandates and centrally administered bureaucracy, will keep AI developers in line.

Guterres disagrees, embracing political and industry AI controls rather than trusting the marketplace.

Cautioning that “the world cannot afford a race to the bottom on AI safety,” the chief bureaucrat said concerns raised by those on the front lines of AI technology that its development “is racing ahead of our understanding of the risks” can’t be ignored, the Associated Press (“AP”) reports.

Governments must assume their first responsibility to protect civilians from AI threats, which means “national action is essential,” Guterres told UN reporters. “But global coordination is also indispensable.”

“We need guardrails to build trust – and that make AI safe, transparent, accountable, with human dignity at the centre.”

That’s where the UN and its strictures come in, Guterres outlined.

He said AI will be a major topic in his discussions with world leaders at their annual gathering next week for the high-level session of the UN General Assembly.

“The United Nations will continue to explore practical ideas and approaches in the immediate days ahead,” Guterres said, per the AP report.

“We need a shared understanding of how to advance the safe, secure and responsible development of AI – while identifying when increasingly powerful systems may require stronger safeguards, or additional measures to manage potential risks.”

Expect a global UN summit sooner rather than later on AI controls, Guterres said in response to a question asking whether next week’s meeting of top officials from the UN’s 193 member nations wouldn’t be the perfect opportunity for talks on curbing the excesses of AI.

The career bureaucrat said, “I think it makes full sense at the right moment to have a serious international summit on artificial intelligence.” And at a summit, he said, “it is absolutely essential to have everybody on board” – governments, companies, scientists and civil society – “and I hope that this will be possible.”

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United Nations votes 164-1 for Equal Earth map after US brands it ‘radical ideological project’

The United Nations on Friday was one vote shy of unanimously adopting a new map of the world that shows Africa’s true size, making the continent appear far larger than it does on traditional maps.

The United States was the only one of 165 member nations to vote against the U.N. General Assembly resolution to accept the Equal Earth map projection, which depicts countries and continents in their true relative sizes, according to the map creator’s website.

Six nations abstained, including Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.

Yaryna Ferencevych, the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, said the resolution was presented as “an anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions” but was, in her view, part of a “much larger and more radical ideological project.”

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UN Calls for Global Slavery Reparations  

A UN organ is making demands so incredible it would be unbelievable had we not heard similar loud cries from race hucksters a few years ago.

The UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published a document calling for immediate “financial compensation, educational initiatives and institutional reforms” to remedy supposed harms that persist today as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, which ended more than 200 years ago (in fact, it was the West that led the charge in eliminating chattel slavery altogether, which had been happening everywhere since time immemorial).

The committee speaks with authority. It claims that the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) treaty “imposes broad and immediate obligations.”

The recommendation is directed at the 182 countries that ratified the ICERD treaty. That includes the United States, the U.K., France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and many others. You can see the full list here.

Bold Claims, Bold Demands

The ICERD, though more than half a century old, is the basis for the bold demands in the CERD document. The committee also cites additional treaties for support, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Those treaties were adopted, respectively, in 1966 and 1984. The United States has ratified all of them, and they are considered binding.

According to this UN committee, the slave trade might have ended, but it still looms over contemporary laws, policies, and institutions. As a result, everything about Western society is inherently racist. According to the document, modern manifestations of this racist system “include racial profiling and the disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials; racial disparities in criminal justice systems; and discriminatory laws, policies and institutional practices affecting access to housing, education, employment and health care.”

The documents’ authors claim:

Despite formal legal reforms, racialized violence, stereotyping and structural barriers continue to constrain, inter alia, educational attainment, economic mobility, health outcomes and environmental safety, producing enduring intergenerational disparities.

Structural Implementation

So, action must be taken. The UN Committee “recommends that structural measures be implemented as a matter of policy, thereby recognizing collective harms, even when harms to a specific individual have not been established.” This should include “compensation, restitution and other forms of satisfaction.” It repeats this point several times. And every time it does, it adds another layer of nonsense. The document also says that people may “seek reparations through restitution, compensation, cessation, guarantees of non-repetition, and satisfaction, including acknowledgement of responsibility and apologies.”

The committee also calls for “equality” in politics and the criminalization of speech that offends its version of history. Governments should “condemn and criminalize racist hate speech and the dissemination of theories of racial superiority,” say the authors.

Guilt by Association

What about the countries that weren’t involved in that slave trade? (Conveniently, there is no mention of the African accomplices who participated in the European slave trade.) It doesn’t matter. Everybody needs to pay up. The authors explain why:

While some States bear direct responsibility for trafficking in enslaved Africans and racialized transatlantic chattel slavery others may have benefited from, facilitated, or contributed to sustaining the global economic and racial structures that emerged from these systems. At the same time, there are some States that neither engaged in nor benefited from these practices. Notwithstanding this distinction, all States have a responsibility to support reparatory justice for the legacies of these historical injustices given their enduring global impacts.

There is no excuse for what happened. That includes the norms of the era. “By recognizing the persistence of systemic racism and its roots in historical slavery,” the document says, “the Committee considers that the States Parties should take action today … regardless of the legal framework applicable at the time of the historical acts.”

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The UN and Red Cross Are Calling for Restrictions on AI Drones and Killer Robots

The United Nations and the Red Cross are warning that rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic weapons are bringing the world dangerously close to crossing a moral red line that has inspired dystopian science fiction for decades: the autonomous targeting of humans by deadly machines.

In an appeal to world leaders on August 25, the International Committee of the Red Cross and UN Secretary-General António Guterres renewed their call for a global treaty establishing restrictions on autonomous weapons systems. They warned that the technology behind AI targeting software and unpiloted drones has developed at record speed since the UN and Red Cross first called for such negotiations three years ago.

“At the same time, scientists and engineers developing these systems have themselves raised the alarm,” Guterres and the Red Cross said in a joint statement on August 25. “When the architects of this technology are calling for limits, States cannot afford to remain passive. This year must mark a turning point.”

In other words, the world must act now to rein in what are commonly known as “killer robots” or “slaughterbots” — unpiloted drones, robotic dogs, robot sentries armed with guns, AI targeting systems, and other digitally driven death machines that can identify, strike, and eliminate human beings on their own.

“You don’t even need drone operators; you can just type in a coordinate and not see the implications of what you are doing,” said Rory Fanning, an author, activist, and veteran of the U.S. war on Afghanistan, in an interview.

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US plans $725 million payment towards its large UN debt

The Trump administration has informed Congress of its intention to pay $725 million to the United Nations, a congressional notification seen by Reuters showed, a move aid experts said was a welcome step towards paying billions in dues owed.

The administration has criticized the global body for not living up to its potential and slashed funding to many U.N. agencies. When asked about the planned payment, a U.S. official said any payments will be contingent on continued reforms of the organization and added that the U.S. has not transferred any funds as of Friday.

The allocation of funds – mentioned in an August 4 State Department notification letter to Congress that has not been previously reported – comes ahead of an expected speech by U.S. President Donald Trump to the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month. 

‘It keeps the ship afloat a little longer’

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this year that the U.N. faced “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid contributions from member states, and the global body has brought in large budget cuts.

“Over the past six months, the United States has achieved historic reforms across the U.N. – reforms long considered impossible – including the first real budget cut in U.N. history, resulting in nearly one billion in cuts,” a State Department official, responding to Reuters questions about the payment, said in an email.

In April, Devex, a development news agency, reported that the U.S. had set specific conditions for the release of funds, such as more cost-cutting and moves to counter China’s influence.More: U.S. debt set to hit $40 trillion months earlier than expected

The Trump administration has carried out an unprecedented shrinking of its federal government, saying it was bloated and has significantly cut back on domestic and foreign grants in an effort that it says was to put money into causes that aligned with U.S. taxpayer interests.

The $725 million would be less than 20% of the more than $4 billion that the U.N. said in May that the United States owed — though Washington has said that total figure is much lower and that it has made some payments.

Eugene Chen, a former U.N. official, said such a transfer would help pay U.N. salaries for a period, but might not cover them all. “It keeps the ship afloat a little longer,” he said. 

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Canadian Military Celebrates Occupation of Haiti

Sunday was National Peacekeepers’ Day and the Canadian Forces had the temerity to celebrate the UN occupation of Haiti. Through UN missions Ottawa has contributed to major US imperial crimes.

On its Facebook page the military noted, “On this day, we honour the courage, dedication, and commitment of all Canadians who have served – and continue to serve – in peacekeeping operations around the globe. Since 1948, more than 125,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, over 4,500 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and hundreds of Canadian civilians have served in international peace support missions to more than 35 countries.”

The photo that accompanied the post was of two white soldiers looking at a young Black boy in Port-au-Prince as part of Operation Hamlet, which was the name for the Canadian Forces’ participation in the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) from 2004 to 2017.

After consolidating a US, France and Canada military coup against Haiti’s elected government the UN mission was responsible for countless abuses. The foreign soldiers had sex with minors, sodomized boys, raped young girls and left many single mothers to struggle with stigma and poverty after departing the country. Beyond sexual abuse, the UN’s disregard for Haitian life caused a major cholera outbreak, which left over 10,000 dead and a million ill.

500 Canadian troops were part of the UN mission that backed up the coup government’s (2004-2006) violent crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. For years Canada led the policing component of a UN force that also killed dozens of civilians directly in pacifying Cité Soleil, a bastion of support for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

It’s not just Haiti. Canada played a significant role in the UN peacekeeping force that contributed to one of the worst post-independence imperial crimes in Africa. In 1960 the UN launched a peacekeeping force that delivered a major blow to Congolese independence aspirations by undermining elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. As detailed in Canada, the Congo Crisis, and UN Peacekeeping, 1960-64, Canadian soldiers played a significant role in the Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) force that enabled Lumumba’s assassination. Canadian troops dominated intelligence-gathering positions within the UN mission, and they worked to undermine Lumumba. After the PM escaped house arrest and fled Leopoldville for his power base in the Eastern Orientale province, Canadian Colonel Jean Berthiaume assisted Lumumba’s political enemies by helping recapture him. Kept in place by Ottawa, the UN Chief of Staff tracked the deposed prime minister and Berthiaume informed the head of the military, Joseph Mobutu, of Lumumba’s whereabouts. The elected prime minister was killed soon after.

Through UN missions in Haiti (2004), Congo (1960) and Korea (1950) Ottawa contributed directly to major US imperial crimes. Canada’s sizable contribution to UN missions in Egypt and Cyprus were largely designed to reduce tensions within NATO. In Egypt (1956) the US opposed the British/French invasion while in Cyprus (1964) NATO members Turkey and Greece were on opposite sides.

As far as I can tell, major Canadian peacekeeping missions have always received support from Washington. Still, many liberal/Left commentators ignore the power politics driving UN missions.

In recent days Rideau Institute president Peggy Mason and Royal Military College professor Walter Dorn have been quoted in major outlets complaining about the Liberals abandoning UN peacekeeping. In the CBC Dorn explicitly linked participating in peacekeeping to Great power competition with China, noting “we’re ceding more rights and more territory for China to take over leadership.”

Dorn is correct to (indirectly) highlight the geopolitical motivations driving UN missions.

It’s correct to say that Canada’s participation in UN missions has generally been less damaging than its involvement in US/NATO wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. But, that’s not an argument for blanketly promoting peacekeeping.

The stark reality is that Ottawa has never deployed large number of troops abroad principally to promote international law or justice.

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The Countries That Will Pay for the UN Tax Experiment

A United Nations proposal would replace the current system of taxing each multinational subsidiary separately with a global unitary tax system. A corporation’s worldwide profits would first be combined into one total and then divided among countries according to a formula measuring where it employs workers and where its customers purchase goods and services. Each country would apply its own corporate tax rate to the portion assigned to it, regardless of where the company legally reported the profit.

Tax Justice Network estimates that this reallocation would produce an additional $500 billion in annual corporate tax revenue worldwide. It would be redistributed among governments, creating major winners while stripping revenue from countries whose economies currently benefit from corporate headquarters, intellectual property, financial services, or low-tax structures.

Ireland would suffer one of the largest losses, surrendering an estimated $11.15 billion annually, or 81.9% of the multinational corporate tax revenue measured by the study. Hong Kong would lose $9.37 billion, or 75.7%; Singapore $8 billion, or 69.2%; Switzerland $5.43 billion, or 42%; the Netherlands $3.16 billion, or 28.4%; and Malta $3.04 billion. Bermuda would lose $489 million, the British Virgin Islands $496 million, Puerto Rico $547 million, Jersey $510 million, and Mauritius $152 million.

These jurisdictions currently tax profits that multinational corporations book within their borders despite having relatively little employment or customer activity there. The UN formula would disregard where those profits are legally reported and redistribute them toward countries where the company’s workers and customers are located.

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