On August 22, after almost 20 years of negotiations, Russia became the 156th member of World Trade Organization (WTO). Regrettably for the U.S., Russia has still not been granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status, meaning that the U.S. cannot fully benefit from Russia’s new status in the WTO. As …
In the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) recent State of World Population report, access to contraception is described as a “universal human right.” While the report has no legal force, it declares that cultural and financial barriers to accessing contraception are an infringement on women’s rights. While access to contraceptives …
International treaties sound like a good idea, especially when they claim to protect vulnerable people. The problem is, America already does more than any other country to ensure equal rights for its people—and the United Nations just wants the power to interfere in American law. The Senate is now considering …
Last Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that included language—called the Magnitsky Act—that for the first time punishes Russian officials implicated in serious human rights abuses. The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority—365 to 43—demonstrating strong bipartisan support. The Senate will vote on the Magnitsky Act and …
Senators Ben Cardin (D–MD) and Jon Kyl (R–AZ) have joined together to sponsor a modern piece of human rights legislation, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act. The legislation is designed to punish gross violators of human rights while allowing the U.S. to extend permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) …
On Tuesday, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson characterized free speech not as a fundamental right, but as a “privilege” given to us by the U.N. Specifically, he referred to “the freedom of speech, the freedom of expression” as a: gift given to us by the [Universal] Declaration of Human Rights, but …
Most people are familiar with the U.N.’s notorious ineffectiveness, but viewers of the documentary U.N. Me will reach an inevitable conclusion: It’s even worse than we thought. Managing to fit as many U.N. scandals into the short documentary as possible, filmmakers Ami Horowitz and Matthew Groff rely on interviews with …
Tuesday marked the 32nd anniversary of China’s oppressive one-child policy. The population control rule, established on September 25, 1980, has resulted in almost 40 million “missing” women and some of the most egregious human rights violations in recent history. As recent, gruesome accounts from the communist country have illustrated, enforcement …
