Free Republic

At least 19 U.S. states have introduced bills that attacks the right to protest since Donald Trump’s election as president. At least 19 U.S. states have introduced bills that attacks the right to protest since Donald Trump’s election as president, an “alarming and undemocratic” trend, U.N. human rights investigators said this week. Maina Kiai and David Kaye, independent U.N. experts on freedom of peaceful assembly and expression respectively, are calling on lawmakers in the United States to stop the “alarming” trend of “undemocratic” anti-protest bills designed to criminalize or impede the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression. “The...

President Trump may have short-term successes but will ultimately fail, and “reality therapy” — including checks and balances in the U.S. system — will make him realize that “things are not as simple” as they appear, former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan said this week. Speaking Tuesday at the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, an annual event held in Brussels, Annan was answering a moderator’s questions about Trump’s executive order reversing the Obama administration’s environmental regulations. British journalist and BBC “HARDtalk” presenter Stephen Sackur asked Annan whether it matters that the leader of the world’s most powerful economy is saying...

Jean Ziegler sits on the UN Council for Human Rights. He is a large figure on the political stage and is often drafted in to sit on a range of commissions (especially those related to food and distribution). He seems to be respected by most world leaders and has a long history of working with International rights groups. But this man has a checkered history that should concern those that believe in free nations and even more so, those that are concerned that the UN is being driven by an agenda that is unfriendly to modern democracy.

Nations are free entities that exist often through the blood and sacrifice of their citizens. The power that the people of nations allow their leaders to hold and exercise has historically been a delicate balance between consent and insurrection. We have examples in place of countries all along the spectrum, from inviolate dictatorship in North Korea, to hamstrung Parliamentary democracies in Sweden, and of course, everything in between. Countries are free to engage in whatever internal escapades they wish (unless that involves the mass slaughter of one or all segments of its citizenry) and the rest of the world will...

Shortened title. Full title: MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE TO NEGOTIATE A LEGALLY BINDING INSTRUMENT TO PROHIBIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS, LEADING TOWARDS THEIR TOTAL ELIMINATION To Her Excellency Elayne Whyte Gómez President of the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination I extend cordial greetings to you, Madam President, and to all the representatives of the various nations and international organizations, and of civil society participating in this Conference. I wish to encourage you to work with determination in order to promote the conditions...

Pope Francis calls for elimination of all nuclear weapons In VaticanCharles CollinsMarch 28, 2017 MANAGING EDITORAn atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the United States at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, on November 1, 1952. (Credit: US government file photo.)In a letter to a UN congress promoting the elimination of atomic weapons, Pope Francis wrote that nuclear deterrence is ineffective against the principal threats in the twenty-first century, mentioning in particular terrorism, asymmetrical conflicts, cybersecurity, environmental problems, and poverty. The pontiff said the international community must consider “the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences” that would follow from any use of nuclear...

Foreign Aid: Something wonderful is happening at the United Nations, and her name is Nikki — as in former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. For the first time in years, the U.S.' new ambassador to the U.N. is an unapologetic champion of her own country's interests within the global body. Reform winds are blowing. Haley, like John Bolton (Bush II administration) and Jeanne Kirkpatrick (Reagan) before her, is showing the world that she's not content to be a bland, politically correct American figurehead at the U.N. She's making a big difference. Of course, we knew she would be a good...

Another day, another anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations — this one dressed up in the faux trappings of an assist to Palestinian women. What this resolution really amounts to is one more reason for America to stop funding the UN. Lest that sound overwrought, let’s peer into the UN boudoir whence came this resolution, which passed by a wide margin last week under the anodyne and oh-so-UN title: “Situation of and Assistance to Palestinian Women.” Sounds reasonable, perhaps?

New United Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wowed the audience at AIPAC this evening, saying “The days of Israel-bashing are over,” in a conversation with former Defense Department official Dan Senor. She began her explanation of how she would change the UN by saying, “I wear heels. It’s not for a fashion statement. Because if I see something wrong, I’m going to kick them every single time.”

In this week's update entitled "Times of the Signs" John explores several pertinent topics, including the question of the Mark of the Beast, the terror attack in England (and the subsequent left-leaning commentary which gets destroyed by a free-thinking commentator in a video John shows) as well as the issues facing Israel. The situation in Israel, the proposed two-state solution and the constant battering of her people on the issue of human rights has finally reached a pinnacle at the UN. Watch and smile as a speaker takes to task several countries and addresses the UN President, asking "Where are...

Israel took no steps to comply with a Security Council call to stop all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and instead authorized “a high rate” of settlement expansions in violation of international law, the United Nations said Friday. U.N. envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the council the large number of settlement announcements and legislation action by Israel indicate “a clear intent to continue expanding the settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory.” […] Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, reiterated that the United Nations “considers all settlement activities to be illegal under...

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday condemning the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage and warning the Islamic State extremist group, al-Qaida and other combatants that such attacks may constitute war crimes. The resolution approved by the U.N.’s most powerful body expands previous measures which were limited to the illicit trafficking in looted cultural items to fund terrorism, and focused on Iraq and Syria where Islamic State extremists have destroyed ancient sites including Palmyra. The newly adopted measure targets not only IS, al-Qaida and its affiliates but all parties to conflicts. It condemns and urges prosecution of those...

In First, U.S. Will Not Attend U.N. Human Rights Council Meeting The Trump administration will boycott the United Nation's Human Rights Council, or UNHRC, due to its efforts to advance an anti-Israel agenda, according to senior administration officials familiar with the effort who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. The UNHRC, which includes member countries cited for mass human rights abuses, is poised on Monday to adopt at least five anti-Israel resolutions, prompting outrage in the Trump administration over what officials described as the council's unjust bias against the Jewish state. The boycott comes on the heels of the resignation...

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 429, March 20, 2017EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkey – notwithstanding its official denials – has shown itself extremely reluctant to designate the Islamic State (ISIS) a terrorist organization, and that reluctance has hampered efforts to bring ISIS suspects to justice. Ankara has frozen the assets of ISIS but continues to stop short of officially labeling it a terrorist group. In view of the fact that ISIS has used Turkish territory as a transit route into Syria and Iraq and has placed sleeper cells in dozens of Turkish cities, Ankara would be well advised to designate the group...

The leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement denounced the United Nations on Saturday as weak after the withdrawal of a report accusing Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on Palestinians.A senior U.N. official resigned on Friday after the secretary-general asked her to remove the report, published by the United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), from the internet.U.N. Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf said she was leaving after "powerful member states" had pressured the world body and its chief with "vicious attacks and threats". Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech...

Shaken by confirmation that the new administration of its biggest contributor is proposing sweeping reductions to its funding, the United Nations on Thursday warned that “abrupt funding cuts” could harm long-term reform efforts. Meanwhile more than 100 Christian leaders — including two participants in President Trump’s inauguration ceremony — appealed to Congress to reject the administration’s proposals for significant cuts to foreign aid. […] More than 100 Christian leaders signed a letter to congressional leaders on Thursday, urging them to “support and protect” the international affairs budget. […] Among the signatories were New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and National Hispanic...

If being an apartheid state means committing inhumane acts, systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over another, then Israel is guilty, a United Nations panel has determined. The report, published by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), drew sharp criticism from the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who called it “anti-Israel propaganda.” Headquartered in Beirut, ESCWA’s membership includes 18 Arab states. Titled, “Israeli Practices Toward the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid,” the report was written by Richard Falk, a former U.N. special rapporteur to the Palestinian territories known for harsh...

Envoy Nikki Haley says Washington outraged by publication; Sec-Gen Guterres distances self from it; Israel slams it as ‘despicable’ The United States on Wednesday demanded that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres withdraw a report by a UN body accusing Israel of imposing apartheid on the Palestinians and of racially dominating them. Guterres distanced himself from the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) but US Ambassador Nikki Haley said it should be scrapped altogether. “The United States is outraged by the report,” said Haley in a statement. “The United Nations secretariat was right to distance itself...

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday against an abrupt cut to U.S. funding for the world body, and France's U.N. envoy said a retreat by Washington from global affairs could lead to more instability. "Abrupt funding cuts can force the adoption of ad hoc measures that will undermine the impact of longer-term reform efforts," said Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric. "The Secretary-General fully subscribes to the necessity to effectively combat terrorism, but believes that it requires more than military spending," he said in response to Trump's proposal for an additional $54 billion in military spending. French U.N. Ambassador Francois...

Angelina Jolie has made a strong defense of the United Nations, saying the world body, as “imperfect” as it is, needs reform but also support. The American actress and special envoy for the U.N. refugee agency decried a “rising tide of nationalism masquerading as populism, and the re-emergence of policies encouraging fear and hatred of others” during a speech at the U.N. in Geneva on Wednesday. Saying she was speaking as a “proud American” and “an internationalist,” Jolie said some politicians were elected “partly on the basis of dismissing international institutions and agreements.”