Free Republic

NEW YORK — Before the United Nations can save the planet, it needs to clean up its own house. And as scandal after scandal has unfolded over the past decade, from Oil for Food to procurement fraud to peacekeeper rape, the size of that job has become stunningly clear. But any understanding of the real efforts that job entails should begin with a look at the long and murky career of Maurice Strong, the man who may have had the most to do with what the U.N. has become today, and still sparks controversy even after he claims to have...

The Paris, France-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is making “an attempt to distort history” in favor of Palestinians by voting to declare Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall, a Muslim holy site. The JTA notes that the proposal seeks to confirm an earlier UNESCO decision that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb–which are two West Bank sites holy to both Jews and Muslims–are part of a Palestinian state. On Friday, a Palestinian mob set fire to the Joseph’s Tomb, a Jewish holy site located in the Fatah-controlled West Bank. Fatah still takes direction from the...

Citing wasted tax dollars and attacks on the constitutionally guaranteed liberties of the American people, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.; shown) introduced a bill to restore U.S. sovereignty and withdraw from the United Nations. The effort to de-fund and exit the UN comes amid growing scrutiny of the global organization, often ridiculed as the “dictators club,” and myriad mega-scandals swirling around it. However, despite ever-growing support in Congress for restoring U.S. sovereignty by withdrawing from the UN over the years, the legislation still faces an uphill battle.In a statement last week announcing the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2015 (H.R. 1205),...

Bonn (AFP) - Calls by the Group of Seven (G7) Monday to slash world carbon emissions did little to boost UN climate talks in Bonn, where frustration mounted over the snail-like progress. Groups of countries pleaded for greater efforts to streamline a draft text for a climate pact due to be adopted at a conference in Paris in just over six months. "We are very concerned about the pace of negotiations," said Amjad Abdulla of the Maldives, speaking for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) which are deeply exposed to climate change. "We have not made the big jump...

GENEVA (AP) — All senior U.S. officials and CIA agents who authorized and carried out torture like waterboarding as part of former President George W. Bush's national security policy must be prosecuted, top U.N. human rights officials said Wednesday. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, said it is "crystal clear" under international law that the United States, which ratified the U.N. Convention Against Torture in 1994, now has an obligation to ensure accountability.....

We all know how tolerant radical Shari’a Muslims are toward Christians, especially when it comes to kidnapping, torture, hangings, and beheadings. As brutal as they are toward Western Christians, they are even worse (if that’s possible) toward Islamic converts. It’s also no secret that Shari’a based Islamic governments don’t like to be criticized for the iron veil of oppression by which they control their populations. So in 2009 when an Iranian web publisher petitioned Sweden for asylum in order to escape political persecution from the strangulating Iranian government, one would think the welcome mat would have been laid out...

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), headquartered in Geneva, is releasing videos that predict what weather reports will be like in 2050 These are based on what happens if climate change is allowed to continue Earth's average temperature could rise by more than 4°C (7.2°F) by the end of the 21st century, according to researchers This could lead to more extreme weather around the world such as storms, droughts and flooding The videos are being released ahead of the UN Climate Summit 2014 What will weather reports be like in 2050? Rather dramatic and unnerving if climate change gets out of...

The UN's top human rights official again condemned Israel for its military actions to stop Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, accusing the Jewish state of “deliberately defying International Law... in a way that may constitute war crimes.” Navi Pillay told reporters following yet another "emergency" meeting of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council that Israel was not doing enough to protect civilians. "There is a strong possibility,” said the known Israel critic, “that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.” Among the UN’s long bill of particulars against the beleaguered Jewish state...

Hamas agreed on Wednesday night to a temporary humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, but not before firing another salvo of rockets towards Israel. "The group agrees to a ceasefire for five hours," starting from 10:00 a.m. local time Thursday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency. "The Palestinian factions agreed to accept the offer from the United Nations for a cooling-down on the ground for five hours starting from 10 in the morning," he told the news agency. Shortly before 2:00 a.m. Thursday morning, however, sirens were heard in the Eshkol region, Hof...

Israel has accepted a request by UN envoy Robert Serry to enact a six-hour "humanitarian ceasefire" starting Thursday morning. Serry submitted the request to both the Israeli government and Hamas on Wednesday evening in order to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip; while Israel accepted immediately, Hamas has yet to respond. It comes as efforts continue to broker a more long-term truce after Hamas rejected an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement Tuesday morning, and responded by escalating its rocket fire against Israeli civilians. One Israeli man, 38-year-old father of three Dror Hanin, was killed in a mortar attack near the Erez...

WARNING: Graphic pictures below… WHO stands for the World Health Organization. A recent glance on YouTube has uncovered a video provided by WHO giving step by step instructions for performing an abortion. WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends. The Reproductive Health Library is a division of the World Health Organization (WHO). This “library” contains an abortion video. In...

The U.S. has already signaled that Iran's UN envoy pick is a no-go - and for VERY good reason. At the same time we are being entangled in these disputes; we do so and are to some degree continuing this because the UN is on U.S. grounds. The statement "get the U.S. out of the UN and the UN out of the U.S." has been oft-repeated...so here is a possible solution - with one caveat. The UN is moved to neutral territory (if at all possible), so we don't have to shell out a significant chunk for its operating expenses....

I have been hearing a commercial featuring Mia Farrow, Laurence Fishburne and others. The ad takes us to Unicef without any information. It's a donate site.

eadlines across the mainstream press early this morning reported on the sad story of a four year old Syrian boy found alone in the desert, fleeing to Jordan. Mirror.co.uk for example, published the following: A four-year-old boy separated from his family while fleeing Syria has been found crossing the desert alone. Clutching a plastic bag containing his possessions, Marwan makes his way across the border into Jordan. The brave youngster was helped by United Nations staff who managed to reunite him with his worried family. Skeptical of the emotional shot, I posted a link to the story on Facebook, with...

Just a few weeks ago, 11-month-old Shaista was pulling herself up, giggling as she took her first wobbly steps with the helping hand of her teenage mother. Then the polio virus struck and Shaista was no longer able to stand, her legs buckling beneath her weight. Today, her mother cries a lot and wonders what will become of her daughter in Pakistan’s male-dominated society, where a woman’s value is often measured by the quality of her husband. […] Fresh cases of polio—traced through genetic sequencing to the Pakistani strain of the disease—are showing up in countries that were previously polio-free,...

NEW YORK, February 5 (C-FAM) The UN's educational and cultural agency says that the purpose of educating children is not only to foster their literacy and social advancement, but also to teach them where and how to have an abortion and to increase their tolerance for same-sex behavior. In its report, “Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All” released last week, UNESCO said that educated women reduce their risk of dying from pregnancy complications by adopting better hygiene practices, having skilled birth attendants, recognizing symptoms of bleeding or high blood pressure, and “by assessing how and where to have an...

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police entered a public park in the Gulf Kingdom and told women to stop using swings, an act that drew applause and criticism by viewers of a picture showing the men warning some women at the swings. The picture went viral on social networks in Saudi Arabia before it was published by newspapers showing two men from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice warning women against using the swings. “Some viewers of the picture supported the move by the Commission members on the grounds women using the swing could encourage men...

The UN General Assembly yesterday condemned Israel in six resolutions, the most significant of which declares 2014 a “Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.” The new year is now liable to bring escalated politicization within UN agencies worldwide, doing nothing to help Palestinians or Israelis on the ground, while inflicting yet further damage to the world body’s effectiveness and credibility. … In his message to yesterday’s UN ceremony for Palestinians, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Israel only. He failed to condemn the recent spate of Palestinian terror attacks, including those that took the lives of 19-year-old Eden Atias and 20-year-old...

This photo is one of many in the World Press Photo Contest of 2012. Straight out of Orwell's "1984". It shows a picture of North Korea's founder, Kim Il-sung, decorating a building in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

I was perusing through the news and saw many articles on the horrific destruction the storm in the Philippines had wrought. As I reading through the stories at Google, yahoo News, the term 'Climate Negotiator' kept on appearing in article after article. Well, I had no idea what a Climate Negotiator is, does. I mean, trying to negotiate with the climate seems a sissyphean task if not the most mentally stable thing to attempt. I tried searching Google, Yahoo for some precise meaning, job description for a Climate Negotiator but information was far and few between. It seems it is...