Hilal Elver

Covid-19 Could Shake Up Global Sanctions Regimes, UN Expert Says

Several top UN officials and other leaders have called for easing of certain sanctions imposed on such countries as Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. In the US, some Democrats have rallied behind the call to specifically help Iran during the pandemic as well. But the Trump administration has refused to go along with those recommendations. CREATIVE COMMONS

From the Green Revolution to GMOs

Why did the European Food Safety Authority claim that glyphosate was not ecotoxic? This is the question environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason poses in her new 23-page report which can be accessed in full here. In places, the report reads like a compilation of peer-reviewed studies and official reports that have documented the adverse impacts of chemicals used in modern agriculture.

Richard Falk on Palestine, Israel and the UN in the Trump Age

Richard Falk, who was the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, from 2008 to 2014, speaking in the Human Rights Council, June 2013. Falk said the current discourse from the United States on the Israeli-Palestinian fight has abandoned all pretenses of “impartiality” and clarified that Palestinian interests are “irrelevant.” Jean-Marc Ferré/UN Photo